The swoop also unearthed the cocaine traces on the singer’s underwear. Residues of the painkiller Demerol and sedative Promethazine were also said to have been on the garments.

It is not known how the coke got there or in what form it was found.

The discovery was not revealed at the child sex trial because cops could not be certain it was Jacko who used the drug. They could not rule out the possibility the underwear had come into contact with maids or cleaning staff.

...or, of course, with the 23rd Santa Barbara Scouts.

Santa Maria courthouse has released a transcript of a police interview with former Neverland security guard Chris Carter:

Carter said he would get Xanax prescriptions at pharmacies for Jackson under different fictitious names including Carter’s own name.

He added that Jackson was taking ten-plus Xanax pills a night.

Carter said he expressed his concerns with Dominic Cascio (a friend of Jackson) and Dominic told him Jackson was doing better because he was down from 30-40 Xanax pills a night.

He said a doctor told him Jackson was addicted to Demerol, but said he was giving Jackson a placebo to wean him off.

He described a situation in Florida where Jackson and a security detail were in a hotel room alone and Jackson fell on his face.

He said he later found out that Jackson was intoxicated and had hurt himself.

The puzzling thing about this report - which includes claims that Jackson is flying drugs to Bahrain (that'll go down well with his hosts) - is sourced to a Jackson aide.

Jackson's family are said to be increasingly worried:

Even Jacko’s dad Joe has been unable to get hold of him.

... and Joe, of course, used to be able to grab him with just the one the hand, leaving the other one free to wave the belt about.

So this prodigious drug use might explain this - perhaps if you listen to news footage of this scene carefully, you'll hear Jackson's manager yelling "no, love, when Michael said he wanted to celebrate with a handfull of doves..."